I work as a psychiatrist, and I noticed that every time my colleagues and I gossiped, we felt closer together. I started to wonder whether there was a biochemical cause for this feeling of closeness.

Brondino tested her hypothesis by recruiting 22 female students from a local university.

She randomly assigned them to one of two groups. The first group was led by an actress who steered the convo into a gossip sesh about an unplanned pregnancy on campus.

FUN!

The second group heard an actress tell a personal story about how a sporting injury caused her immense physical damage and how she may never be able to play sports again.

(SORRY ABOUT YOUR DREAMS LADY, BUT OMG HOW LONG IS THIS STORY?)

Then, both groups took part in a control exercise. They answered questions about which classes they were taking and why they were taking part in the study. (HUH, WHAT? I FELL ASLEEP.)

Then, the women were tested for their levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and oxytocin (the pleasure hormone).

It turned out the cortisol levels across the board went down, but for the gossip group, oxytocin levels soared.

Brondino explained,

[Gossip] brings people closer together than they would be if they were talking about some impersonal topic. And it can help us figure out who to trust, because we can hear information about people we don't know from trusted sources.